Rebuilding Rob

Growing up as a kid, we played sports in my neighborhood year-round: Baseball, football, basketball, soccer, we dabbled in a little bit of hockey.

Baseball, I feel like is a sport pretty much anyone can play when they’re young. You don’t really need a lot of skill to hit a ball until you get a little bit older. Football, while it is a full contact sport, was OK for us to play as kids. Even tackle, remarkably, no one ever really got hurt when we played. But we pretty much stop playing that by the time we started reaching junior high and people started getting bigger, and some people started playing the football at school with equipment and everything

I never really got into playing basketball myself. My brother and my sister both played it. My sister played in high school; but I think I always lack a certain level of coordination to effective basketball player. I just never took it.

Soccer was another one, for us, kids in the neighborhood, it was just more of kind of a fluke. Again, when you’re young, it doesn’t really require a lot of skill that better players develop as they get older. To the best of my knowledge, no one I really grew up with in my neighborhood played soccer in high school. I think we were like so many kids in America, who played the game when we’re young, only to walk away from it, as we get older; completely squashing, the notion that “soccer is going to be big in America someday”

We would occasionally play hockey in the neighborhood, usually with a ball instead of a puck. Once in a while, when the weather was really cold, those of us who won’t skates would attempt to play on ice. But again, like other sports, you had a few kids in the neighborhood who played competitively, and, that just kind of ruined it for everyone else.

Today, I’m approaching 50, and I don’t really play any of the sports anymore. In fact, I’ve probably played basketball most recently; and I was substitute teaching at a school.

As for what I like to watch, I tried to keep up with the four major, North American sports: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. I’d like to at least know, know that, if I’m at a bar or some social setting, I can talk about a game that’s being played on TV.

Of course, that’s not to say that I haven’t watched other sports. I attended at least one game for the Pistons, Lions and Red Wings in my lifetime; although I haven’t been to either Ford Field or Little Caesars Arena for any games yet.

• Baseball is first and foremost, my favorite sport. I wish the season went year round. I could watch baseball all day, even if it was just as background noise. Growing up in my family, I would say that we were a baseball clan. We were definitely more into the Tigers than we were the other local sports teams. In fact, my father had a partial season-ticket package for the Tigers from 1996 until 2015. Currently, my goal is to see an MLB game at all 30 active MLB stadiums, as I have discussed on other posts.
• The Lions just gave us the best season I’ve Ever seen in my lifetime. I’ll talk more about that later, as I’m still trying to digest last night’s historic collapse against the 49ers. I watch the games on TV, but right now, going to a game in person is a little bit out of my price range.
• I’m a fair weather fan when it comes to the NBA. But I have found myself watching the Pistons lately as they are in the midst of an historically bad season.
• As for the Red Wings, I could take them, or I can leave them. I’ll cheer for them when they’re in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but during l the regular season, I really couldn’t care less. I think that’s more of a statement about the fact that the NHL lets too many teams into their playoffs than anything else.

To be honest, I only follow the Lions, Pistons and Red Wings enough to pass the time during baseball’s off-season

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier related posts:

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “From prepubescent jocks to middle-aged, armchair quarterbacks” originally Rebuilding Rob.